A MAJOR crackdown on fireworks is being launched in the run-up to bonfire night.

Stockport Trading Standards has joined forces with other agencies in the borough including the police, fire service and the NHS, to stamp out the problem of noise pollution.

Some concerned parents have even called for newsagents who sell fireworks more than three weeks before November 5 to be prosecuted. Currently there is no law stopping sales, but instead a code of conduct which is often broken by unscrupulous traders.

Each year Trading Standards is flooded with complaints about noise, polluting bonfires and youths setting off bangers in the street.

Anyone with a firework or bonfire-related query or problem can call a trading standards hotline - the first of its kind in Stockport.

Shops serving under-age children are to be targeted and safety advice leaflets are being distributed in libraries and at information points.

"But those we do see can be quite nasty. Teenagers and young adults come in with burns to their hands and fingers in October and November. Some are to their upper limbs, where they have put fireworks in their pockets and they have accidentally ignited."

The hotline is staffed 9am - 5pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9am-4.30pm on Fridays. To get advice or pass on your firework-related worries, call 0161 474 4242.

POLL VOTEDo you think fireworks should be on sale this early? Poll runs until October 14.